ESPN a little slow to jump on the Gopher bandwagon

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Schnauzer

Schnauzer

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The ESPN bloggers have been picking the Gophers to lose as of late. They also have the Gophers in the Texas Bowl in their projections while CBS has the Gophers in the Gator Bowl. Meanwhile, the BTN power rankings have the Gophers at #4 while ESPN kept them at 6 this week while having Nebraska leap frog them after their home come-from-behind hail Mary victory over winless Northwestern, one week after being physically dominated by our rodents. Gophers stayed at 6, Nebraska moved from 7 to 4.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/88185/big-ten-power-rankings-week-10-5

All of these power rankings, bowl projections, etc. are meaningless of course. It is just interesting to look through the window they provide into the ESPN blogger's likely opinion the Gophers aren't that good.
 

Schnauzer said:
The ESPN bloggers have been picking the Gophers to lose as of late. They also have the Gophers in the Texas Bowl in their projections while CBS has the Gophers in the Gator Bowl. Meanwhile, the BTN power rankings have the Gophers at #4 while ESPN kept them at 6 this week while having Nebraska leap frog them after their home come-from-behind hail Mary victory over winless Northwestern, one week after being physically dominated by our rodents. Gophers stayed at 6, Nebraska moved from 7 to 4.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/88185/big-ten-power-rankings-week-10-5

All of these power rankings, bowl projections, etc. are meaningless of course. It is just interesting to look through the window they provide into the ESPN blogger's likely opinion the Gophers aren't that good.
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We have been double-digit (almost) underdogs in our last three games. It's been very safe to pick against the Gophers. I think there is a component of all this making our team hungrier.
 

Schnauzer said:
The ESPN bloggers have been picking the Gophers to lose as of late. They also have the Gophers in the Texas Bowl in their projections while CBS has the Gophers in the Gator Bowl. Meanwhile, the BTN power rankings have the Gophers at #4 while ESPN kept them at 6 this week while having Nebraska leap frog them after their home come-from-behind hail Mary victory over winless Northwestern, one week after being physically dominated by our rodents. Gophers stayed at 6, Nebraska moved from 7 to 4.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/88185/big-ten-power-rankings-week-10-5

All of these power rankings, bowl projections, etc. are meaningless of course. It is just interesting to look through the window they provide into the ESPN blogger's likely opinion the Gophers aren't that good.
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A win over Penn State this weekend would open some eyes but the reality is it will take a win against Wisconsin or Michigan State to really grab any national attention above and beyond what we are getting to this point.

To this point of the 7 wins the only one that really registers nationally is Nebraska, the other 6 won't score a lot of points due to who we beat (Northwestern would have been close but now they are next to irrelevant Nationally with their current losing streak).

None of that is meant to detract from the improvement the team has shown this year just looking at things from the National perspective it is easy to see why the needle has not moved a ton on Minnesota even with the nice improvement in record to this point.
 

MNVCGUY said:
A win over Penn State this weekend would open some eyes but the reality is it will take a win against Wisconsin or Michigan State to really grab any national attention above and beyond what we are getting to this point.

To this point of the 7 wins the only one that really registers nationally is Nebraska, the other 6 won't score a lot of points due to who we beat (Northwestern would have been close but now they are next to irrelevant Nationally with their current losing streak).

None of that is meant to detract from the improvement the team has shown this year just looking at things from the National perspective it is easy to see why the needle has not moved a ton on Minnesota even with the nice improvement in record to this point.
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Neither MSU or UW are getting much credit so we are pretty much where we should be.
 

wait!what? said:
Neither MSU or UW are getting much credit so we are pretty much where we should be.
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A lot of that has to do with the overall feeling on the Big Ten being a very mediocre conference top to bottom right now. Bowl season will be interesting to see how the teams stack up but I would think that there is a pretty good chance the Big Ten team will be the underdog in most of its bowl matchups when the time comes.
 


Schnauzer said:
The ESPN bloggers have been picking the Gophers to lose as of late. They also have the Gophers in the Texas Bowl in their projections while CBS has the Gophers in the Gator Bowl. Meanwhile, the BTN power rankings have the Gophers at #4 while ESPN kept them at 6 this week while having Nebraska leap frog them after their home come-from-behind hail Mary victory over winless Northwestern, one week after being physically dominated by our rodents. Gophers stayed at 6, Nebraska moved from 7 to 4.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/88185/big-ten-power-rankings-week-10-5

All of these power rankings, bowl projections, etc. are meaningless of course. It is just interesting to look through the window they provide into the ESPN blogger's likely opinion the Gophers aren't that good.
Click to expand...

While you might be able to argue that we deserve a Gator Bowl bid at season's end, I'll be shocked if we are selected over a Michigan or Nebraska by the actual bowls. They want butts in the seats and both of those schools have a much better history of traveling than we do. Unless there is a 2 loss rule, I thought it was eliminated a couple years ago, we will be passed over. I'd be happy to be wrong in this case, I'd prefer to avoid another trip to Houston.
 

Putting Nebraska above us at #4 is nonsensical and ridiculous.
 

Sadly, I think it's going to take sustaining this improved play over the next year before a site like ESPN sits up and takes note of anything going on in the middle of the country in a somewhat down Big Ten. ESPN will pay attention going into next year if the Gophers can win two of their last three plus a bowl game. Until then, they will almost certainly continue to pick against us.
 

This team is still a ways off from where it really wants to be, there's no doubt. Three in a row is nice, especially with two on the road, but even as optimistic as I am, the Gophers are not contenders yet.

HOWEVER, the last three games are without question games that the Gophers would have lost by double digits as recently as last year. Plain and simple. It's cliché, but you have to learn how to win and this team is doing that. They're learning how to win, and more importantly, the culture is changing.

More importantly than being contenders and earning respect are the wins and the improvement that is being shown. At the end of the day, this is still about recruiting better players and winning 8-9 games compared to the 5-6 that many expected this year will go a LONG LONG way towards building this program. THAT's what's important.

They're winning, and they're winning largely with inferior talent and that's impressive. Nebraska has better players, as does PSU, Wisky, and MSU, and probably at this point even Northwestern (or at the very least Northwestern has a lot more upper classmen, as well as recent success to draw from). Winning with inferior talent is remarkably impressive, and a testament to the coaching staff.
 




Ogee Oglethorpe said:
This team is still a ways off from where it really wants to be, there's no doubt. Three in a row is nice, especially with two on the road, but even as optimistic as I am, the Gophers are not contenders yet.

HOWEVER, the last three games are without question games that the Gophers would have lost by double digits as recently as last year. Plain and simple. It's cliché, but you have to learn how to win and this team is doing that. They're learning how to win, and more importantly, the culture is changing.

More importantly than being contenders and earning respect are the wins and the improvement that is being shown. At the end of the day, this is still about recruiting better players and winning 8-9 games compared to the 5-6 that many expected this year will go a LONG LONG way towards building this program. THAT's what's important.

They're winning, and they're winning largely with inferior talent and that's impressive. Nebraska has better players, as does PSU, Wisky, and MSU, and probably at this point even Northwestern (or at the very least Northwestern has a lot more upper classmen, as well as recent success to draw from). Winning with inferior talent is remarkably impressive, and a testament to the coaching staff.
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Excellent post. While I tend to think this coaching staff is the answer to all questions about advancing this program, I've been thinking about the talent issue, especially when it comes to recruiting. Can this school ever compete at a high level? Won't it be tough to out-recruit...well, anyone? I think the great thing about football is its complexity. Cobb is a great example. Not highly rated as a recruit, but arguably could end up being all-B1G. He bought in.

As the culture changes, the players will help disseminate the theme to the incoming classes. Coach 'em up, get 'em in the weight room, and as long as we can bring in enough speed, I think folks will stop looking down their noses at our talent.
 

We are the Rodney Dangerfield of college football until we get back to the Rose Bowl.
 

I admit it would be nice for the Gophers to get some more credit, but really I don't mind. The bricks are getting set in place, ESPN giving more credit doesn't score points and doesn't add bricks. The media's attitude can be slow to change. Next season, I don't think it will be assumed that the Gophers will be in last place.
 



RodentRampage said:
I admit it would be nice for the Gophers to get some more credit, but really I don't mind. The bricks are getting set in place, ESPN giving more credit doesn't score points and doesn't add bricks. The media's attitude can be slow to change. Next season, I don't think it will be assumed that the Gophers will be in last place.
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I think a college gameday visit might change things for the fans. Watching corso put on a goldy head instead of a stupid skunk in a popcorn box head would make my day
 

t-docious said:
I think a college gameday visit might change things for the fans. Watching corso put on a goldy head instead of a stupid skunk in a popcorn box head would make my day
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Unfortunately, he would definitely pick Wisconsin in this scenario
 


I think it is fair that it takes some sustained success to get some real recognition and identification. Let's not forget, Brewster won three of his first four B1G games one season, and that didn't exactly pan out. Northwestern is a great example of how quickly some short term, recent success can evaporate the next season. Our conference isn't doing us any favors by not being any good. If the favorite wins all of our remaining games, we will be a .500 team in a pretty weak conference (by BCS standards). That is great progress for us, and we have something to be proud of, but not enough to really raise eyebrows across the nation. I am not surprised that the network devoted to just 12 teams including us (BTN) is taking notice quicker than ESPN is.
 

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